Creep (2004)

Sex :
Violence :
Director Christopher Smith
Writers Christopher Smith
Starring Franka Potente, Vas Blackwood, Ken Campbell, Jeremy Sheffield, Paul Rattray, Kelly Scott
Genre Slasher
Tagline Your Journey Terminates Here
Country

Review

“Homeless people don't go missing, homeless people *are* missing.” – Jimmy

Creep marks the directorial debut of Englander Christopher Smith and since it’s his first turn at bat we’ll go slightly easy on the results, as for a first up feature Smith turns in a pretty decent movie though slightly weak in places. For those interested, Smith has post Creep turned in the well received horror comedy Severance and is currently in post production with his latest epic Triangle. Awesome, a quick check turns up the fact that Triangle is an Aussie movie, but just when I was getting excited I find it stars Melissa George. Now that just tarnishes a Silver Star moment, folks. Anyways, based on Creep I’m for sure going to check out the rest of the Smith catalogue, this dude has talent to burn.

Party gal Kate decides, after a few too many shots and glasses of champers, that she is going to head into the City and track down George Clooney. Only problem here is that she needs to catch the tube and it’s last train time. Naturally Kate falls asleep on the platform (those miniatures will finish you off every time) and misses her train that was only eight minutes out. She grabs a non-scheduled service which is only going half a platform, or not depending on your take, and is left stranded in the London Underground.

She soon learns that she is not alone when workmate Guy shows up, having taken all the wrong body language messages. Guy attempts to rape Kate, which is going to be quite the achievement considering the amount of drugs in his system, but is dragged off her by something unseen in the darkness outside the train. So starts Kate’s harrowing attempt to stay alive as a merciless underground mutant tracks her yellow-dressed arse through tunnel after tunnel after .. well, you get the picture. Along the journey into darkness Kate runs across a number of people with a big V tattooed to their forehead and a likeable fox terrier.

Seems the Brits have this thing about something living down in the underground, there’s pretty much a whole subgenre dedicated to it. Let’s shine a light into the darkness and see what may abide.

Smith begins his film with the obligatory prologue piece to ensure we are comfortable seated, have the candles on, and are ready for the atmosphere the Director will develop as the movie progresses. Two sewer workers – wonder if those guys ever take work home with them – are checking some underground tunnels for issues with the piping. We get a full rundown on all things poo from supervisor Arthur and find his mate George is only doing the gig because his probation officer set it up. The couple discover a cave-in and Arthur, well versed in the underground sewer system of Greater London, realises there’s a tunnel here that he hasn’t seen before. While my spider senses were tingling – time to get out of Dodge – Arthur, who clearly isn’t as well versed in horror movies as he is in sewer pipes, decides to investigate the new tunnel. Naturally he falls prey to something unseen in the dark and George follows suit soon after.

Good atmospheric opening which sets the pace for the rest of the movie; Smith fills it with long shots of tunnels and darkness at the edge of frame. Kate gets introduced pretty soon afterwards wearing a bright yellow dress, which I thought was a nice touch given the unremitting blacks and greys used through the film, and we soon have fun times in the underground underway. Smith doesn’t bother with long-winded character introductions, all we need to know is that Kate is pretty feisty and resourceful, Guy is a complete arsehole, and the individual additional characters, read victims, get enough coverage to make you remember who is who.

The Director keeps everything tight throughout the movie and uses a heck of a lot of handheld cameras to get the audience in amongst the action. I’m going to go out on a limb here and state for the record that Smith has a better appreciation of when to use handhelds than, say, Alfonso Cuaron did in Children of Men. Smith isn’t using the technique as a gimmick, he’s using it to enhance the immediacy of the action. I was pretty much ready to buy the director a beer on the spot with this approach.

There are some weaknesses with Creep that I’m pretty much putting down to the narrative structure. Nothing stands out as being injected to add an extra body every ten minutes, as required by teen audience, but for sure Smith has enough incidental characters being introduced to ensure the teens won’t be starved of blood. Smith’s incidental characters move the plot along but we do drop into slasher territory pretty quickly after a surprisingly taut first half of the movie.

In the final wash up we do get an explanation for the “creep”, though I was somewhat confused as to what I was meant to take from that. An underground hospital? Did the kid only suffer from polio? Why was he abandoned? I guess that Smith, quite rightly, decided the audience needed some point of conjecture to take away from the film as the end credits rolled.

Okay, a few final points and we’ll wrap it up for Christmas. Kate gets the drop on the “creep” on a number of occasions and fails to finish the job; that’s starting to get so, like, last century in the genre. At one stage Kate crawls into a corner and shuts off her torch, I assumed at the time to try and hide from her nemesis. She snaps it back on a few seconds later (why? – never explained), and there’s the “creep” in all his Gollum freak-show-ness right in front of her. Paging Mr Marshall, do we have a Neil Marshall in the room? How many shots of people running down tunnels do we really need, yes we are aware that it’s a maze down there. Sigh, I could go on but end of day they are only minor points and this is a debut feature.

Franka Potente (Kate) (and isn’t it great to see the strong female lead characters continue in the genre – Hollywood, please note you don’t need pseudo men in these outings), was simply a brilliant casting choice. Ms Potente, Run Lola Run, nails everything about her character and had me believing. Vas Blackwood (George) delivered the sympathetic character you will be hoping makes it to the closing credits. Ken Campbell (Arthur) was spot on as the old school English public works employee – I love that sort of a character to be honest. Jeremy Sheffield (Guy) nailed it as the sleaze merchant, and Jeremy Sheffield (Jimmy) was woefully underused as the drugged out street person, loved the accent Bro.

Some outfit called “The Insects” turned in the score and you are in for some good times with this one. Loved the train noise they had going on in places. Atmospheric, spooky in parts, the score kept pace with the visuals. I’m pretty sure we got a couple of pop/rock numbers but have forgotten what those were and can’t find a soundtrack listing for the movie anywhere. I’m pretty sure Smith didn’t sanction the obvious “Don’t Sleep on the Subway Darling” though. After all, he’s not Rob Zombie and actually knows what he is doing in the dark genre.

Extra marks to Smith for a nice bit of social commentary at the end of the movie, wondered what the derelict beside the cash machine during the first act was meant to mean.

I got more than I expected with a strong debut release from Christopher Smith. The movie is gritty, unrelenting, and visually striking. Okay there are some minor issues, but for the most part Smith has this one by the scruff of the neck and keeps it on the straight and narrow. Loved the performances from the entire cast and it was great to see Franka Potente again, she’s absolutely huge in the German-speaking world by the way. I had a lot of fun with Creep though I thought the gore, implied or otherwise, could have been toned down somewhat.

Wow, this film was recommended to me a couple of years ago and it’s taken some time to finally get around to see it. Well okay, we pretty much fund our own viewing schedule around Heretic, to avoid our reviews being diluted by pigging out at the trough as some sites do, and I picked up the R4 release on sale down JB HiFi. Maybe we should get a retainer from JB as we keep mentioning them. Anyways, not sure about other regions but we got a jammed packed release from Paramount, no that’s not a misprint, so everyone is happy with the world.

Yep, recommendation on Creep, though do note the adult orientated rating on the movie – it’s there for a reason. Smith is someone to keep an eye on and I am certainly going to dial into his later two movies sooner rather than later. It’s worth catching a ride on this train ride to hell.

ScaryMinds Rates this movie as ...

  Worth catching Smith's debut roller coaster